Commissioners say budget picture has improved

Jan. 2, 2013

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Characteristics of Various Elected Officials’ Responsibilities and Workload:

Minnehaha County Commission:Minnehaha County 2013 Budget -- $65,991403 Commissioners meet as a body every Tuesday. In addition, the commission meets as the Board of Equalization to hear appeals on real estate valuation. Also, each commissioner has 12-14 liaison assignments where the commissioner is the main point of contact between the commission and county departments and agencies with which the county works closely. Unlike the Legislature, with the governor; the city, with the mayor; and the school district, with the superintendent, the county commission does not operate in conjunction with a strong executive leader.

South Dakota Legislature:South Dakota total budget, proposed, FY2014: $4.09 billion Legislative session: Jan. 8 through March 8, plus one day later in March. Two months of full-time work. Lawmakers can be on committees that meet intermittently during the rest of the year – perhaps 3-6 meetings over the course of the year. They also are frequently contacted by citizens and correspond with them.

Sioux Falls Public Schools Board:Sioux Falls Public Schools 2013 Budget $131,484,852. The board holds formal meetings twice a month and public work sessions several times a year. Members also serve on various committees. Board members were paid for an average of 82 working days in 2011-12.

Sioux Falls City Council: City of Sioux Falls 2013 Budget $366,799,089 Sioux Falls City Council meets first three Tuesdays of the month. The eight council Members also serve on between one and five committees apiece. The council is described on the city website as “a part-time policy making and legislative body, avoiding management and administrative issues.”

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Signaling Minnehaha County’s emergence from several years of budget austerity, county commissioners voted themselves a pay raise Wednesday.

The county has turned the corner on a period of “economic dire straits,” according to Commissioner John Pekas.

Election workers also got a pay increase, and the county is raising its housing subsidies.

In addition, commissioners named Gerald Beninga to be their chairman this year.

For 2013, commissioners will make $26,000.

They had made $25,450.88 in 2011. But their salaries dropped in 2012.

Commissioners cut their pay then to $24,177.92 when they imposed the 5 percent pay cut on themselves they attempted to apply to all 530 county employees. The county was facing a $3 million budget shortfall, and commissioners had hoped to realize $900,000 in savings with the payroll cuts.

They saved only about half what they had hoped, however, after the Sheriff’s Deputies Association successfully fought the measure. In a grievance filed with the state, the deputies argued any change in salary for association members must be negotiated. Administrative Judge Donald Hageman agreed with them, and following an appeal by the county, Circuit Judge William Srstka upheld Hageman’s ruling.

Still, with department heads assiduously holding down expenses, with the commission limiting new hires and with an unexpected increase in revenue, the county was able to close 2012 with about $2.5 million more cash on hand than anticipated.

Commissioners were set to make $24,346.40 this year, but Pekas called for those salaries to be increased to $26,000 to reflect the county’s improved financial condition, which has allowed it to restore all employee salaries to their scheduled levels.

“This year, we were able to bring back the salaries as well as a cost-of-living adjustment. We raised them to an appropriate level commensurate with the funding we were able to find,” he said. Pekas also pointed out the Condrey and Associates payroll study and salary recommendations the commission in large measure adopted in 2008 suggested commissioners in a jurisdiction the size of Minnehaha County should be making close to $30,000 annually.

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What others make

By comparison, Pennington County commissioners made $13,200 in 2012. They will set 2013 salaries today.

Sioux Falls Public Schools board members are paid $75 for each day they work. In addition to attending school board meetings, this can include attending graduations, reading to students and similar activities. The average board member was compensated $6,150 for working 82 days during the 2011-2012 school year.

Mayor Mike Huether will make $116,459.20 this year, and Sioux Falls City Council members will be paid $17,468.88.

Unlike legislators, school board members or City Council members, however, county commissioners do not work in conjunction with a strong executive official such as a governor, superintendent or mayor.

“The commission serves as both the executive and legislative role the county,” noted Ken McFarland, the commission’s administrative officer.

“No one commissioner has any more power than what they exercise as a group,” McFarland said.

While he added, “I have never tracked the workload of individual commissioners,” McFarland said that in addition to meeting as a group at regularly scheduled commission meetings, commissioners meet to develop the budget. They meet as the board of equalization to hear appeals on real estate valuation, and each commissioner has 12 to 14 liaison assignments with county departments and agencies funded by the county.

Commissioner Jeff Barth noted the $26,000 county commissioners’ salaries restored the money lost by the 5 percent pay cut and included a modest 2 percent raise.

Reaction

Such justification by Barth and Pekas for a salary increase might be a reflexive action in anticipation of a widespread penchant by the public to sharply question what it pays elected and appointed officials, a political observer says.

“It’s almost a belief that anybody can do a bureaucratic job,” said Michael Card, an associate professor of political science at the University of South Dakota.

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“For the most part, people don’t think their public servants are especially well-trained.”

Add to that a tendency toward critical comparison — “if somebody has a better deal, we try to bring them down to us,” Card said — in a state such as South Dakota where there are large numbers of self-employed people who might be sitting on considerable wealth in a business or farm but are paying themselves comparatively small wages, and a baleful appraisal of public officials’ compensation is practically the universal standard, according to Card.

The commission voted unanimously to approve the 2013 salary.

Election workers

Commissioners also approved Auditor Bob Litz’s proposed new pay schedule for election workers. In 2013, precinct supervisors will earn $130, plus an additional $5 in years with general elections. They had made $120.

Precinct deputies will earn $115. They had made $105.

The pay for general election workers will increase to $12 an hour from $10, and for those working in the absentee precinct it will increase to $10 an hour from $7.50. The stipend for attending election school also increases to $15 from $10.